Low income families have severely limited choices on where they can send their children for education. Step Up for Students is a charity that provides scholarships to K-12 students of poor families in Florida. Families of these students are then able to choose the educational institution they deem is best for their children. 

Step Up for Students can trace it roots back to 1998 when their founder, John Kirtley, realized that low income families in Florida had trouble selecting schools for their children. As such, he took it upon himself to find a way to help these families. During those times, Kirtley was working on a similar program for K-8 students with the Children’s Scholarship Fund. 

Realizing that another program was required for K-12 students, Kirtley began working on a new program and approached Florida Legislature for assistance. A Tax Credit Scholarship Program was created giving corporations a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for participating in the newly founded Step Up for Students educational scholarship program. 

The Step up for Students Tax Credit Scholarship Program is designed in such a way that it can provide low income students a choice in education. The program has been misconstrued as placing emphasis on the government’s failing public school system. However, this is a misconception as the program is actually designed to increase the choices that the public educational system provides to their students. 

Today, Step Up for Students is considered a major success. During the 2012-13 school year, the program provided scholarships to over 51,000 low-income students. 1,338 private schools participated in the program. 

The management of Step Up for Students considers themselves to be in a partnership with the public educational system. They believe that equal opportunity should be provided in education and are working hard to achieve this. Their focus is on providing educational choices to students and not on the quality of educational institutions.